Posts tagged “Zion National Park”

One chore I accomplish each winter is to edit my photo library for all the photos I neglected to edit earlier in the year. Editing is a thankless task that some notable photographers even suggest is unnecessary due to disk drives being inexpensive. However, it is hard enough for me to find the photos I want when things are edited, let alone when I don’t edit.

Editing, at least for me, has one big added benefit. By going over those thousands of image I took that I didn’t pay a lot of attention to earlier, I always find some hidden gems that I missed earlier (along with lots of dogs – but more on that in a later blog). As my Christmas present to you, I offer a look at some of the hidden gems I’ve found thus far during my editing. Merry Christmas everyone!

Tulip fields in the Skagit Valley last spring. I took so many shots on the day I was there, I was bound to miss a few good one when I first looked at the images. Here’s one I missed until my editing this December.

This moonrise over Seattle last January was another case of taking a lot of images on one day. Previously when looking at images from this shoot, I was concentrating on horizontal formats, so missed this vertical shot.

I took this during a private workshop I held earlier in the year. Since the focus of the workshop was my student, I didn’t pay much attention to the images I took that day until my recent edit. BTW, I love the downtown Seattle Library for abstract shots such as this.

On my trip to the Paria last spring, we took a short hike before setting off on the long one. When previously looking at images from the trip, I focused mainly on those from the long hike and didn’t bother to develop this one until much later.

Another from the same trip, this is the Double Alcove in Zion National Park

Somehow, when going over of images from a day trip to Bainbridge Island last February, I overlooked this image.

Last April I did a night shoot with friends in downtown Tacoma, the next three shots are images I didn’t process from the trip until recently. I love the colors in these shots.

Another shot from the same shoot

I almost threw away the series of images that this photo came from. I took them with HDR in mind, and when putting it together, didn’t like the result. But when editing this month, I thought I’d try a surrealistic look (which I normally don’t like). In this case, I do like the result.

Tomorrow morning, I’m hitting the road with my brother Rob to drive down to Kanab, Utah. From there, we’ll drive east to the Paria Ranger Station to meet up with my old grad school buddy, Rob Tubbs, and his family to hike Paria Canyon. Over six days, we’ll hike from the White House trailhead down to Lee’s Ferry in Arizona, a total distance of 38 miles. I’ve been wanting to do this hike since I first heard about it, probably about 30 years ago. It is one of the classic backpacking trips of the American Southwest. You can read more about the hike here. I’m hoping to return with some great photos to share on the blog.

I just weighed my pack and “ouch!” The pack weighs 69 pounds (including 4 liters of water). Now I’m considering not taking the 70-200mm lens (with case, tripod collar, and quick-release plate, it weighs about 4 pounds). Would you take it? The tripod stays though, as do the two other lenses.

I tell you, it’s times like this I wish I had one of those 24-300 mm lenses instead my my three-lens kit. Well, I have two days to decide as we drive to southern Utah. Maybe I can take a few less clothes – I’ll be stinky after six days anyway, do I really need more than one pair of pants?

In anticipation of the trip, I’m posting this old shot of the Watchman in Zion National Park. Most of Paria Canyon is in the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, but I only have a handful of old slides from that area and they aren’t scanned (and I don’t have time to do it now), so you’ll have to put up with this shot from Zion. Zion is about 85 miles (by road) west of the Paria Canyon trailhead.